JP Nadda chairs important meeting on UP polls; BJP firms up agenda for next 100 days

BJP president JP Nadda chaired a key meeting to discuss the party's strategy ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election in the national capital on Monday. As per sources, the latest political situation in the state in the wake of the Lakhimpur violence came up for discussion. The saffron party also reportedly deliberated on its agenda for the next 100 days and stressed the need to convey the benefits of the welfare schemes to the voters.

Sources told ANI that BJP has decided to increase its farmer outreach, hold many public meetings and ramp up its presence at the booth level. This assumes significance amid the disenchantment over the three agrarian laws and the killing of 4 farmers in Lakhimpur. Leaders such as BJP national general secretary BL Santhosh, the party's state unit president Swantantra Dev Singh and the party's state election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan were present in the meeting. 

BJP seeks re-election in UP

In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, BJP won a whopping 312 seats in the 403-member House, whereas BSP could win only 19 seats. On the other hand, the SP-Congress alliance failed to bear fruit as it could win in only 54 constituencies. While this was seen as a mandate for PM Modi as BJP had not declared any CM candidate, Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath was a surprise pick for the post. Though some BJP leaders made conflicting statements over Adityanath's future as the Chief Minister, PM Modi put rest to all speculations by lauding UP's governance model during his successive visits to the state.

Leaving no stone unturned for the 2022 Assembly election, BJP appointed Dharmendra Pradhan as its election in-charge and Anurag Thakur, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Shobha Karandlaje, Annapurna Devi, Saroj Pandey and Vivek Thakur as the co-in-charges. Meanwhile, Sanjay Bhatia, Sanjeev Chaurasiya, Y Satya Kumar, Sudhir Gupta, Arvind Menon and Sunil Oza as the organizational in-charges of Western UP, Braj, Awadh, Kanpur, Gorakhpur and Kashi. On September 24, BJP formally announced an alliance with the Nishad Party and Apna Dal(S).

While Apna Dal(S) president Anupriya Patel is the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, the Nishad party chief's son Praveen Kumar Nishad won from Sant Kabir Nagar in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket. Moreover, Adityanath expanded his Council of Ministers on September 26 by inducting Sanjeev Kumar, Dinesh Khatik, Paltu Ram, Dharmvir Prajapati, Dr. Sangeeta Balwant, Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar and Jitin Prasada. Providing representation to the SC, OBC and Brahmin community in the government is being perceived as a significant move ahead of the UP polls.